


Love Like This

by theinsandoutsofcastiel



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 07:25:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12054150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theinsandoutsofcastiel/pseuds/theinsandoutsofcastiel
Summary: Daryl saves the reader from a horde of walkers. The reader falls for Daryl instantly, but Daryl is a little reluctant to express his feelings.





	Love Like This

Warnings: Cannon violence, slight mention of PTSD, no smut, just fluff

Fic:

He’d become your guardian angel. Well, he wasn’t exactly an angel, but with the vest he wore, you couldn’t help but see him that way. You owed him your life. It was about a year into the apocalypse when your group had been taken out by a horde of walkers, you being the only one left alive. You had just three bullets left, a mere fly swatter against a group of walkers like that. There had been an old RV and you’d been able to barricade yourself inside, the walkers clawing at the windows in an attempt to tear your body limb from limb. Your plan was to wait them out and make a run for it when the herd thinned out. It made you feel like a coward, hiding in relative safety after your friends had been torn to shreds, but you didn’t know what else to do.

Two days later, maybe three, you heard the sound of a motorcycle over the constant drone of the walkers’ moans and groans. You had no clue who this person might be, or if you could trust them, but you knew you couldn’t last much longer in this RV. Racing to the driver’s seat, you pressed your hand down on the horn, hoping to gain the stranger’s attention. It worked.

The rider pulled to a stop, quickly spotting you. “What the Hell do you think you’re doin’?” the man shouted at you. He pulled out a crossbow and took aim. For half a second, you were afraid he’d shoot you. He didn’t. Instead he saved you. 

He told you to get on the back of his bike and you followed instructions without hesitation. At that point, you didn’t know where he was taking you. You didn’t even know his name. All you knew was that this man had saved your life; and the wings on the back of his vest, dirty and rough as they might have been, put one image in your mind. Guardian angel.

“Daryl, would it be alright if I shared a cell with you tonight?” you asked on the first night. After Daryl had brought you back to the prison and Rick had asked his three questions, the group had allowed you to stay. They assigned you a cell of your own, of course, but after being alone for several days, the only thing you heard when you closed your eyes was moans of the dead and the scratching of rotting fingers on windows. Daryl sat on his bunk, looking at you, but not giving you an answer. “Never mind, it was a stupid idea anyway,” you said, letting the bed sheet fall back across the entrance to the cell, “I don’t know why I asked.”

“Come here,” Daryl said, stopping you in your tracks. You peaked back around the sheet to see Daryl standing from the bed. “I’ll take the top bunk, and you can have the bottom one,” he offered.

“I was,” you began, wondering if you were about to ask too much, “I was wondering if, maybe, I could sleep next to you.” The look on his face made you hastily explain, “I don’t mean anything by it, I promise. It’s just that, being alone for that long, surrounded by nothing but the dead, I just want to sleep next to something living.”

“Fine,” Daryl said, not very enthused, “Come on then.” He slumped down onto the bed and laid out across it, his back turned to you.

“Thank you,” you whispered as you crawled into bed, your back pressed to his. He grunted in response. “This is just for tonight, I promise,” you added.

***

You hadn’t kept your promise. About two months had gone by and still you snuck to his cell each and every night. He wasn’t as reluctant as he had been the first night. In fact, he expected you, welcomed you even. You’d fall asleep with your back pressed to his, and in the mornings, you’d wake snuggled up against his chest, one of his arms beneath your head, the other slung across your waist. As soon as he woke, he’d pull his arms from you as if he were embarrassed.

Once he’d asked you why you choose him, you could’ve asked to sleep next to anyone in the prison, he said, so why him? You told him you choose him because he’d saved your life. He made you feel safe. You choose not to tell him you saw him as a guardian angel. Daryl wasn’t the type to take something like that seriously.

After spending about a week with him, Daryl began to see that you weren’t just the coward hiding in an RV. He saw your worth and after a while he started asking you to go on runs with him. You became his partner for runs, his only partner, and you wouldn’t have had it any other way. Every time you went anywhere with him, you found excuses to be close, whether it be sitting next to him in the car or riding on the back of his motorcycle. Daryl didn’t seem to mind having you near him, but he was never the one to seek out the closeness. It was always you.

You wish you could’ve had watch duty with him as well, but with the way Rick had it set up, you were usually partnered with Glenn or Carol. Daryl was on watch early this morning, which meant he had to sneak out while it was still dark. He tried not to wake you as he climbed over you, but it was unavoidable. You kept still, feigning sleep so he wouldn’t feel bad about waking you up.

Keeping your eyes closed, you can hear him behind you, putting on his vest and gathering his weapons. The sheet across the entrance rustles and he almost leaves, but he changes his mind. His footsteps come closer and he stops just beside the bed.

Your eyes almost fly open when you feel his fingers caress your cheek. He brushes your hair behind your ear gently and you have to fight to keep your breaths steady. Without saying a word, he leans down and places a kiss to your cheek. Then he’s gone, rushing out of the room as if he’d just embarrassed himself. As soon as his footsteps are out of earshot, you sit up in bed, tracing the kiss with your fingertips.

A smile crosses your lips as you try to hold on to the feeling of his lips pressing a kiss to your skin. You wondered what the kiss meant, if it meant anything at all. There was never a time you didn’t love him. From the second he saved you, you were his, but he never seemed interested in you in that way. This was the first hint that he might feel something for you greater than a general concern for your welfare.

When it was time for your shift, you get out of bed, get dresses, grab your gun, and head out to the guard tower. You were partnered with Glenn today. He normally beat you to the post, but today he was nowhere to be seen. Taking a seat, you begin watching out over the yard, your fingers absentmindedly touching your cheek.

“Hey,” Daryl’s voice startles you, “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare ya.”

“Didn’t you have the morning shift?” you ask, “I thought Glenn was supposed to have this shift with me.”

“I did, and he was,” Daryl answers, “But Glenn wanted some alone time with Maggie, so I offered to take his shift.”

“That was nice of you,” you say, easing back into your seat.

“I reckon,” Daryl replies, shrugging it off. He takes a seat next to you, fingers playing nervously with the feathers on one of his crossbow bolts. You sit in silence for a long while, trying to find the right words to say.

“Daryl, I’m sorry,” you tell him.

“What for?” he asks.

“If me coming here, asking to sleep in your cell every night, messed something up between you and somebody, I’m sorry,” you tell him. Maybe putting things like this would get him to tell you how he felt about you.

“Nothin’ to be sorry for, ‘cause there wasn’t nothin’ to mess up in the first place,” he answers.

“Good,” you say, not really thinking. Once you realize what you’d said, you quickly try to clarify your meaning, “I mean, it’s good that I didn’t ruin anything, I didn’t mean that it was good you weren’t with someone. God, I sound like such an idiot.”

“Walker,” Daryl says, ending your rambling. Grabbing your gun, you quickly head to the balcony of the tower and take aim. “Wait,” Daryl says.

“Why?” you ask, finger poised on the trigger.

“Try this,” he tells you. Looking at him over your shoulder, you find him holding out his crossbow to you.

“Your crossbow?” you question. He never let anyone touch the weapon.

“Yeah,” he says, “I thought maybe I could teach you to use it. That way you could come huntin’ with me sometime without usin’ that gun.”

“You want me to go hunting with you?” you press. You’d gone on runs with him plenty of times, but he’d never asked you to go hunting with him before.

“Practical skills,” he replies, “It’ll help you survive. Here, try it.” He hands you the weapon and you take it reluctantly. You gasp as he moves to stand behind you, arms around you as he shows you how to use the weapon.

The only time he’d ever had his arms around you was in the mornings when you woke up beside him. It was like he didn’t want anyone to see him getting too close to anyone, but now… You pull the trigger, sending the bolt straight through the walker’s head.

“Good shot,” he compliments, his arms still around you.

“Beginner’s luck,” you shrug it off, “Daryl, can I ask you something?” Lowering the crossbow, you turn to face him. He’s so close to you that your heart races. It almost makes you lose your nerve.

“I s’pose,” he answers. Your eyes flick down to his lips before you look back up to meet his gaze. It would be so easy to close the distance between the two of you.

“This morning, before you left for your shift,” you begin, pausing as you try to figure out how to say it without embarrassing both Daryl and yourself, “Can I ask why you kissed me?”

“Y-you felt that?” Daryl stumbles.

“Yeah,” you answer, “I was just wondering why you did it.”

“I dunno,” he answers as he takes a step backward, hand rubbing the back of his neck nervously as his cheeks turn bright red, “Didn’t mean nothin’.” With that, Daryl grabs his things and leaves the guard tower like he’s retreating. You’d never seen him back down from anything, but apparently, you’d terrified him. He left you standing there on your own, wondering if you’d made the right decision or if you should’ve kept your mouth shut.

‘Didn’t mean nothin’.’ The words roll around your mind for the rest of the day. Maybe he hadn’t said it the way he meant it. The phrase was a double negative, but you were probably just over thinking things. Was it really possible that something that meant so much to you could mean so little to him? If it didn’t mean anything, why had he done it in the first place? You avoid Daryl for the rest of the day, and it’s just as well because he avoids you too. His face turns bright red every time you catch him watching you; and you can’t help but think that there’s a hint of regret in his eyes.

When it’s finally time for bed, you head of to your cell. Lying on the bed, you shut your eyes and try to decide what to do. You weren’t sure if you should go to his cell and try to talk about what had happened or if you should stay in your own cell and give both Daryl and yourself some space.

“Y/N?” you hear a soft voice ask, pulling you out of your thoughts. The sheet hanging over the entrance moves back as Daryl looks inside. You can barely make out his features in the dim light. “Is everythin’ alright?” he asks you.

“I guess, why?” you ask, sitting up on the bed.

“It’s just,” he begins, “Well, you’ve normally come to my room by now. I wondered where you were.”

“I wasn’t sure I was welcome anymore,” you tell him.

“Why?” Daryl asks, “I’ve never turned you away before.”

“You’ve never kissed me before either,” you respond. Daryl’s gaze falls to the floor, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. He mumbles something you can’t understand and when you ask him what he said, he raises his voice, but not his gaze.

“I said, I didn’t mean it,” Daryl answers, “What I said earlier.”

“Then what did you mean?” you ask him. He pulls back, looking down the hall as if to make sure that no one is watching before looking back at the floor of your cell.

“Can I sleep here tonight?” Daryl asks quietly.

“Fine, I guess you can stay,” you answer. You lie back on the bed, turning your back to Daryl like you normally would. The bed dips as Daryl takes the spot behind you, but to your surprise, his back doesn’t press to yours. Instead, his arms wrap around you, pulling you tight against him. “Daryl, what are you doing?” you ask him.

“I didn’t know how to tell you,” Daryl explains, “That kiss . . . I was tryin’ to work up the courage to say somethin’, or do somethin’. People have been tellin’ me for weeks that I should ‘make a move,’ or whatever; but I wasn’t sure how, or if you’d even want me to.”

“So you kissed me on the cheek when you thought I was asleep?” you ask him.

“Are you mad at me?” he asks softly.

“No,” you answer truthfully, “I’m not mad. I just … it’s confusing.” You don’t know how to finish your thoughts.

“Things are different when I’m with you,” Daryl tells you, snuggling in ever closer, “You’ve given me somethin’ to live for.”

“Daryl, don’t say that,” you tell him, turning in his arms so that you’re facing him, “You had plenty to live for before you meet me.” Being in his arms, face to face, makes your heart race.

“Maybe,” he says, his hand cautiously brushing the hair back behind your ear, “But like I said, with you it’s different. I never imagined it was possible to feel love like this.”

“Daryl,” you whisper softly, your hand fisting in the front of his shirt, “You’re my guardian angel, you know that right? I’ve loved you ever since you saved my life.”

Even in the dim light, you can see the smile you’d come to love. He didn’t smile like that very often, but you loved when he smiled because of you. “Would it be alright if I kissed you?” he asks.

“You mean you don’t want me to fall asleep first?” you question teasingly. His smile falters and he blushes. He tries to respond, but he stumbles over his words, making you giggle.

Finally you end his agony by pressing your lips to his gently. Daryl almost looks stunned as you pull away, but it doesn’t take him long to recover. His hand twists into your hair as he closes the distance between you, capturing your lips in a deep and passionate kiss.


End file.
